Growing human rights abuse on Angola-DRC border

Angola / DRC / Canada / Growing human rights abuse on Angola-DRC border expelled diamond diggers robbed and beaten by authorities

Angola / DRC / Canada / Growing human rights abuse on Angola-DRC border expelled diamond diggers robbed and beaten by authorities

LUANDA, Angola , June 13, 2008/African Press Organization (APO)/ - Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) has expressed its deep concern about growing human rights abuse affecting illegal Congolese migrants in Angola, and calls on the governments of Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to deal with the problem according to international laws on migration and human rights.

 

PAC field workers this week visited the small border crossing of Kamako, in Kasai Occidental, DRC, where according to local officials, 1500 Congolese diamond diggers have crossed from Angola in the past 5 days, along with an additional 300 or so women.

 

PAC interviewed more than 20 of the returnees. Although they had been working at some 5 different diamond mining sites in Angola, they told a remarkably similar tale: At 2 or 3 in the morning, army soldiers and police officers surrounded their encampments, firing shots in the air. All Congolese without documents were forced to leave after being systematically stripped of all their possessions - clothes, radios, furniture and money. 'You came to the country with nothing,' they were told, 'you will leave with nothing.' They were then forced to walk for as many as five days back to the Congo.

 

At most sites, violence appears to have been limited to 'light' beatings, although there are reports of much more serious violence. The expulsions appear to be a repeat of the violent expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Congolese diamond diggers from Angola in 2003 and 2004.

 

Partnership Africa Canada is a member of the Kimberley Process, which holds its semi-annual meeting in New Delhi June 17-19. The Kimberley Process involves more than 70 governments, and seeks to end the problem of 'conflict diamonds' - diamonds stolen by rebel armies to fuel war. PAC has also helped to create the Diamond Development Initiative, which seeks to improve the lives of Africa's one million-plus artisanal diamond miners. 'We are deeply concerned that exchanging one kind of violence for another will not solve Africa's diamond problems,' said Bernard Taylor, PAC's Executive Director.

 

'We held lengthy discussions with both Angolan and Congolese diamond authorities earlier this month in Luanda and Kinshasa, and we believe that there is wide scope for positive, long-term solutions to the problems created by unorganized, illicit diamond mining,' he said. 'But this does require a longer-term approach, and it requires all parties to respect basic human rights.'

 

SOURCE : Partnership Africa Canada (PAC)

 

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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
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